Kale, Mushroom & Sun-Dried Tomato Lasagna Rolls Recipe {Vegetarian}

After consuming my fair share of Chopped Kale Salad with Grapes & Feta Cheese last week, I put my thinking cap. With a garden bed full of kale (that makes me smile just to type those words), I needed to get creative. I could go the green smoothie route, which I probably will in the next week or two. However, what I was really craving was a hearty vegetarian meal. I might have to eat mushrooms on my own, for lack of any other mushroom lovers in the house, so it’s a good thing that these lasagna rolls turned out well. I’ll be eating them for lunch for the next five days. Fine by me!

The trick is simple: cottage cheese. Instead of a heavy bechamel sauce, I puree low-fat cottage cheese in the food processor and use that as the sauce, seasoning the heck out of it so that you don’t miss the extra fat.

On top of the “low calorie/low fat” kudos, this dish gets bonus points for the vitamins and minerals provided by the kale and mushrooms.

It’s a keeper!

The recipe:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the whole wheat lasagna noodles and cook until just tender. Drain the noodles, gently rinse with cold water and lay on a kitchen towels, separated from each other.

For the filling, heat 2 teaspoons olive oil in a large frying pan set over medium heat. Add onions and saute until soft, 4 to 5 minutes. Add garlic and saute for additional 30 seconds.

Add the remaining 1 teaspoon olive oil and the mushrooms. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms are tender, about 5 minutes.

Add the kale and cook until the kale is slightly wilted and bright green, about 1 minute. Stir in the sun-dried tomatoes. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and allow it to cool.

Place the cottage cheese in the bowl of a food processor or blender and puree until smooth.

It was actually the generic, store-brand version. I shop at Giant, which I know is only in certain areas, but hopefully you can find a similar one where you live!

I also wanted to let you know that I loved both this recipe and your recipe for grape & gorgonzola topping so much that I featured them in my weekly Weekend Wrap-Up post on my blog. It’s a quick Saturday post sharing some of my favorite online finds from the past week. I’ve included the link to the post in case you’re interested in checking it out. Either way, thank you for such amazing recipes! Have a great weekend!

Yum! For those that have Food Allergies or Vegan: Sub Daiya brand (which is soy-free, nut free, gluten free, vegan) plain cream cheese for the cottage cheese. You could also mix in chopped beans, quinoa-polenta slices, or mushrooms in the cream cheese before adding it to the recipe. Also sub nutritional yeast or finely shredded daiya brand cheese shreds for the parm. Use GF noodles, for Gluten Free.

My boyfriend and I made these last night and they were really easy to make and delicious! We definitely ate a few spoonfuls of the filling on it’s own and it was incredible! Also, I was pretty sure ours would end up being a big mess with filling spilling out everywhere but they rolled up beautifully. Thanks, Dara!